Kamala Harris, the California senator who’s currently in the running to become the Democratic presidential nominee, recently announced she will be bringing Trisha Pesiri-Dybvik as her guest to Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Pesiri-Dybvik, a constituent from Harris’ state, lost her home during the 2017 Thomas Fire only to then be furloughed during the 35-day government shutdown this year; her husband was asked to work without pay. Below, she tells her story in her own words, from the night she lost her home to the record-long shutdown that left her family without a paycheck.
It was December 4, 2017. Both my husband and I are air traffic controllers, and we were both working an evening shift. Two months prior, my mother-in-law, my husband’s mom, had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer. And we were called at work and told that we needed to get on an immediate flight to pay our last respects.
We made arrangements that day for childcare. We notified our boss that we wouldn’t be returning to work the next day. We bought airline tickets. Later in the evening, on my way home, my phone rang. It was an old pilot friend. It was a little bit late, and I thought it was odd for him to be calling. Coming from work, I had an idea that there was some sort of a wildfire, but I didn’t understand the proximity to where we actually lived.
Through this phone call, he said, “Hey, I want to make sure you guys are all okay. My family friends that are being evacuated live in your neighborhood.” I immediately called our nanny, who was at home with our little ones. I didn’t want to alarm her, but I did want to tell her what was going on around her, for her to be aware, and that I was going to call my husband back at work and try to get some more pertinent information, and that I was on the way home.
When I called our nanny back, she said, “Listen. It’s really windy, smoky, and there’s no electricity now. So I’m going to get the kids out of bed, and I will meet you.” Bless her heart, she left her car, took our spare car with the car seats in it, got the kids out of bed without shoes on, just in their pajamas, and met me a handful of blocks away at the shopping center. And the shopping center was unlit. There was no electricity anywhere. You could just see the sky was just lit up; it was so eerie.
I never went back to the house. I took our children to my sister’s house, where it was safe, in Santa Rosa Valley. My husband couldn’t leave work immediately because of the nature of the work that we do. He had to wait till the end of his shift at 11 P.M. Upon his arrival, there was a stream of cars leaving our neighborhood. He made it back to the house, but the neighbors were yelling, “Get out of here!” It was chaotic. We’re used to Santa Ana winds, but the way he describes it, when he went to open the door, the door just ripped right out of his hand.
He grabbed a box of important family documents, birth certificates, passports, that kind of stuff. He tried to locate our two cats, but he couldn’t find them. They were probably scared and hiding. He still wasn’t thinking that the house was going to burn down; it was just this scary scenario, and so he left. He met us. We didn’t want the news on too much because we didn’t want to scare the kids, but we were trying to gauge what was happening.
Once they went to sleep, we just stayed up all night listening to the scanner and trying to determine if we were going to go to LAX or what we were going to do, not really fully grasping that the house was going to burn down completely. So that morning, we were collecting things, and the kids were sick. They were throwing up because of the smoke inhalation, which was scary for us.
We had the news on that morning with some aerial footage, and we saw that our house had burned down. And we just fell to the floor, crying. It was so surreal. My whole family, my sister, her husband, my husband and I, we were just in shock.
Then my husband was left in a terrible predicament. He had to choose, do I go and say goodbye to my mother, or do I leave my wife and my children in this chaotic, stressful environment? He was just torn. Then we had received a phone call from a family member, saying, “We understand what just happened. You guys have a little bit more time. She’s turned the corner, she’s doing better today. You don’t need to fly out immediately.”
At that point, I just started picking up the pieces, finding a place to live, just getting basic essentials for the kids. We literally had the clothes on our backs, that was it. In that time, as a working mom, there was no time to sit around. It was about being proactive, picking up the pieces and trying to put everything, as quickly as possible, somewhat back together for your family. There hasn’t really been much time to be sad or mope around.
The time between the fire and the shutdown was as normal as it could possibly be. Both my husband and I working full-time, having to relocate because there were no homes available where we were currently living because, in that area, so many homes unfortunately had burned down. I also volunteer as a legislative activist for my union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. So I spend what little free time I have volunteering to educate our members of Congress.
The shutdown itself wasn’t a complete surprise being that I’m legislatively active and aware of what’s going on. And we’re federal employees, so it’s important that we understand what’s on the horizon coming out of Capitol Hill. Then, when the shutdown occurred, I went to D.C. twice to work with my union brothers and sisters, and once again, to educate our members of Congress on any piece of legislation that impacts the national air space system.
My husband and I, between the two of us, we have nearly 40 years of federal service. He was deemed an “essential” employee, so he was working without receiving a paycheck. I had recently taken another position, which was deemed “non-essential,” so I had been furloughed. Neither one of us was receiving a paycheck. We had to take some money that we were going to be using for the rebuild. So fortunately for us, we had a little bit of a safety net.
But the bigger picture was that this was potentially happening for an indefinite period of time, and I don’t know how many American citizens that have a family, or who are even just supporting themselves, have the ability to work for years for free. Because while you’re working for free, you don’t have time to get another job.
You also have your air traffic controllers that are a part of a very intricate system coming to work stressed or taking jobs before and after work. I can say one thing for certain: You do not want your air traffic controllers stressed. It’s a demanding job, and when we show up for work, we have to be on our game. We have to be perfect 100 percent of the time. You don’t want them showing up tired, or having the stress of having another job, or not knowing when they’re going to get paid, or worrying about their families, providing for their children. It’s not a good situation for anyone to have to be in.
We believe that aviation is non-partisan. It should not be subject to any other political debate. The federal employees should not be used as political pawns. They want a paycheck. Bottom line, they want to be paid for their hard work, and it’s that simple.
When the Thomas Fires happened, I thought, “Thank God we have stable careers, that we both worked hard.” My husband served in the United States Navy. I have three degrees. We worked hard to get to where we were, and thank God we didn’t have to worry about not being able to rebuild. We were going to be okay. We could provide for our kids. The irony of me thinking, thank God we’ve got stable jobs, and now to have it flip, to do a complete 180. Now, we think maybe we don’t have the most stable careers. Maybe we should keep options open. Maybe we should have a plan B.
I want elected officials to work together. And if there’s something that needs to be tabled for a separate debate, then table it. But as far as the national air space is concerned, I can tell you it needs stable and predictable funding. The possibility that there’s another shutdown looming here in the near future is beyond frightening. It’s set us back years in the air traffic and aviation industry, and we can’t do that anymore.
This has been edited for length and clarity.
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